In 2005, the Football Association Premier League Appeals Committee decided that the player had committed a breach of his contract without just cause, which made Chelsea eligible to sue him.

Mutu was eventually forced to pay £14.8million. Many say that Mutu couldn't recover and his career never had the flash it should have.

9. Robinho

Pele named Robinho his successor when he stunned the world with his performances for Santos in the early 2000's.

Real Madrid managed to purchase him in 2005 and the Brazilian made such appearances which led people to believe he was the next big thing in football.

His move to the English side of Manchester City was probably the worst decision he made in his career. Robinho didn't fit the toughness and the mentality of the English football, and City loaned him back to his old team, Santos.

In 2010, AC Milan purchased Robinho and gave him a chance for redemption, but he failed to shine once again.

8.Ricardo Quaresma

Quaresma's talent was ridiculous. He led Porto to the Portuguese Championship three times in-a-row with his insane creativity.

But in the bigger stages of Europe, where winning and domination are more important than rabonas, trivelas and a few other highlight reel moments, Quaresma failed to make it.

7.Peter Marinello

The Scottish winger with the great dribbling skills was just 19 when he scored a solo winner for Arsenal against Manchester United at Old Trafford at 1969.

Maybe it was the lack of sound advice, the big city lights or his wife's depression, which saw Peter Marinello go from being The "Scottish George Best" to "the guy who wrote the manual on how not to do it".

6. Alvaro Recoba

The Uruguayan attacking midfielder had more talent in his opposite foot than the large majority of football players have in their regular.

But he didn't have the mentality of a winner or of a superstar and he was oddly okay with being a bench player at Inter Milan for about nine years, putting in mediocre performances and only having his moment with some spectacular goals.

5.Sebastian Deisler

The right winger with the glass feet, was hailed as the future of German football in the early-2000s.

His excellent control of the ball and his accurate right foot was the reason clubs like Hertha and Bayern purchased him.

He suffered several major injuries though, like cruciate ligament rapture, which coused him a major depression problem, making him retire from professional football in January 2007 at the age of 27 and never really manage to tap his full potential.

4. Stan Collymore

Collymore was cast in the mould of a great striker. Tall, fast, strong, two-footed and a great eye for the goal. His partnership with Robbie Fowler at Liverpool in the mid 90's was sensational and dream-like.

Stan was sadly another victim of depression however. That was probably the one reason he didn't forge a world-class player's career.

His biography tells us about what depression can do to a man. Had his head been in the right place, Collymore would have been one of the greatest strikers in the world.

3. Adriano

When you talk about wasted talents in football, Adriano's name is one of the first to come up. When the whole world watched him play at Inter Milan, the Brazilian striker looked genuinely unstoppable. Excellent dribbling ability, an incredibly powerful left foot and great striker's positioning were his main qualities, that made him -for a year or so- one of the fiercestt strikers in the world.

His inconsistency though marked his career. Probably a case of a kid taken away too soon(he was bought as a 19-year-old by Inter), Adriano never really grew up. He wasn't a big fan of the training sessions, which led to problems with his weight, which led for him being untrustworthy to Inter and every other team in that regard.

2. Paul Gascoigne

A few years ago, Sir Alex Ferguson gave an interview in which he suggested that he could've been the man who could have turned that raw genius into a functioning footballer, or more importantly a functioning human being.

An incredible midfielder, with great positioning, passing skills and the love for the spectacular goal, Gazza made crowds gasp, in a way people hadn't seen in years.

Gascoigne's mental demons, drug addiction and alcoholism derailed what could have been an historic career.

1. Duncan Edwards

"He was the best player I've ever seen and the best footballer I ever played with," says Sir Bobby Charlton.

The Munich air disaster at 1958, took the life of a 21-year-old versatile player, armed with boundless stamina, an all-encompassing range of passing and a truly ferocious shot, a player who could control any game he played in.

Everyone who has seen Edwards play talks about one of the best and most complete football player this world has ever seen.

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DISCLAIMER

This article has been written by a member of the GiveMeSport Writing Academy and does not represent the views of
GiveMeSport.com or SportsNewMedia. The views and opinions expressed are solely that of the author credited at the top of this article.
GiveMeSport.com and SportsNewMedia do not take any responsibility for the content of its contributors.

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